Chapter 43: Too Far From Heaven, Too Close to America.

《Americans want freedom, but they don't want to give freedom to black slaves.》

The largest newspaper in Mexico, La México, used an entire page to report the atrocities of American immigrants, and strongly condemned the horrific atrocities committed against slaves, and called on all people with conscience and faith to unite and fight against the evil slave owners.

〖They treat people as animals! They deprive people of their freedom and force those poor people to work for free. Those poor people are beaten with sticks, whipped with leather whips, and have to wear handcuffs and shackles, living a life worse than pigs and dogs.

Even if those poor people endure these pains and tortures, the slave owners still refuse to let them go, and they have to separate their wives and children, knock out their teeth, and brand them with the symbol of humiliation and inhumanity.

Use hunger and torture to make those poor people surrender.

This is wrong! This is sinful! This is shameless!

Do I need to explain everything?

No! There is no need at all!

Our time and energy should be spent on more valuable things.

At this point, the slave owners have picked up their guns and are ready to turn our free Mexico and the entire civilized world into their slave plantations.

And we can no longer hope to move them with kindness, but pick up our swords to defend our homes, cut off the chains of slaves, and throw all those chains into the furnace of the times, so that they can never come back to harm our descendants.

God is with us! 〗

This newspaper caused a great response in Mexico. Not only in Mexico, but also in Europe and the United States, newspapers also reprinted this article under deliberate dissemination.

Now the whole Western world knows that a group of Americans intend to re-establish slavery in a country that has signed the Declaration of Abolition of Slavery.

How shameless and barbaric this is. Even the United States is divided into two factions, but they all admit that those who re-establish slavery in a country that has abolished slavery are evil.

For a time, Mexico was in the upper hand in public opinion, and the domestic factions were unprecedentedly united. Catholicism was the lubricant, and everyone intended to let these damn Protestants and slavery go back to their hometown.

However, mere advantage in public opinion cannot bring real victory.

On September 27, 1835, Gonzales fell without the Mexican army firing a single shot.

On October 21, 1835, Goliad fell and all the Mexican defenders were killed.

On October 2, 1835, San Antonio was besieged.

On December 9, 1835, San Antonio fell.

On December 30, 1835, the entire Texas fell.

Goliad is the most important water and land transportation hub. Whoever takes it controls San Antonio.

At this time, San Antonio is the capital of Texas, and it is also the most important food base and economic center.

So Tasan Anna set the first battle at Goliad.

On February 23, 1836, Tasan Anna led an army of 8,000 people, 20,000 rifles, and 30 artillery pieces, aiming at Goliad.

Tasan Anna liked to be treated as a hero, and Franz specially prepared a "Emancipation Proclamation" for him to satisfy his vanity.

Every time Tasan Anna conquered a place, he would gather the local black slaves and let them listen to his speeches, so he stopped and walked along the way.

Black slaves kept asking to join Tasan Anna's army. Tasan Anna was worried that he had no place to issue guns, so he quickly formed three black rifle companies.

At the same time, Tasan Anna followed Franz's words and united all the forces that could be united. He sent people to contact nearby Indian tribes.

Tasan Anna said that as long as the Indians helped Mexico and abided by Mexican laws, they would be Mexicans, and they would not be treated differently.

In fact, the same words and similar promises were given to them by American pioneers, but the Indians had been deceived by the whites too many times, and they asked to see Tasan Anna's sincerity.

Tasan Anna directly ordered the soldiers to give them rifles, but only five bullets were given for each rifle, and an agreement was made that as long as the Indians could abide by the covenant and help Mexico attack the Americans, they would receive a batch of bullets every week.

This made the Indian chiefs immediately like the Mexicans. Of course, there was no way they could fight the Americans, but they could provide intelligence and harass the American supply lines.

This was exactly what Franz wanted. In fact, as long as the Indians could remain neutral, it would be a good thing for the Mexican expeditionary force.

If the Indians could help collect intelligence, attack the supply lines of the American pioneers, and hunt down the lone deserters, it would be perfect.

Two flowers bloom, each with its own beauty.

Sam Houston, an American settler businessman, the current commander-in-chief of Texas and the future first president of the Lone Star Republic, was divided into several factions by the pioneers, and his own troops were too far away from San Antonio.

Sam Houston did not want to make unnecessary sacrifices and decided to abandon San Antonio. He ordered the defenders of San Antonio to abandon Goliad and move to the countryside to wait for the arrival of the main force of Texas.

In fact, before Houston's order arrived, many militiamen and soldiers who temporarily joined the army escaped from the fortress with various reasons.

The most common reason was to go home to harvest wheat. It was normal for farmers to go home to harvest wheat.

But Texas grows winter wheat, which is usually sown in mid-to-late September or early October and matures in late May or mid-to-late June of the following year. Now it is February, and the local economy is a plantation economy, and all these jobs are done by black slaves.

Only Colonel William Travis and his 150 men are left, but he still intends to refuse Houston's order.

William Travis knows how important Goliad and San Antonio are to the entire emerging Texas.

Because once San Antonio is occupied by the Mexicans, it can bring a steady stream of supplies to Tasan Anna and his Mexican Legion.

In William Travis' eyes, Texas's military strength is seriously insufficient, with less than 2,000 regular troops, and even with the volunteers from the United States, it will not exceed 3,500.

And Tasan Anna's expeditionary force has 8,000 people, and there are also Mexican armed forces in the local area, plus those damned black slaves, Indians and those traitors are constantly joining Tasan Anna's team.

William Travis placed his last hope on the United States. He hoped that the United States could directly participate in the war. For this reason, he absolutely could not lose San Antonio.

In order to defend Goliad, William Travis began to write letters to various places for help. He needed more soldiers and more weapons.

However, the Texans were also divided into several factions. Most of the leaders of these factions were the leaders of the colonization groups. These colonization groups had been in a long-term competitive relationship, so most people chose to ignore William Travis's request for help.